The headline-grabbing aLoft Hotel project, first prototyped in Second Life before construction started, can now be visited in the real world (and has been open for quite some time now). Starwood Hotels was the first to take their hotel’s architectural concept...

Today, Linden Lab announced that mesh imports, or the ability to import models created in external 3D modeling apps will be available for beta testing Q2 2010. For architects and other AEC professionals and educators, this has been the long awaited ‘holy...

Check out this jaw-dropping, computer generated animation by Alex Roman, called “The Third & The Seventh.” If it weren’t for the ‘making-of’ videos that accompany this piece, I couldn’t possibly have believed this isn’t...

[UPDATE: We have now published an eBook about Architectural Visualization with Unity3D (including a chapter about Oculus Rift) that can be purchased HERE.] Chez Keystone! Come on in…(plugin required). This isn’t multi-user (yet), and navigation might take...

The barrier to entry just keeps getting lower for for architects, engineers and construction professionals to further employ MMO (massively, multi-player, online) environments in design collaboration, education, visualization and architectural discourse. Here are a few bits and pieces of the puzzle that I’m keeping an eye on.

Visiting an architectural masterpiece, or touring a building we helped design, is one of the many great rewards of architectural study and practice. Yet even if we think of ‘architecture’ as a rich, experiential, and tangible phenomenon, the daily...

If you’re curious about how the OpenSim platform might be useful in your art, architecture or design related projects, we will be holding an informal open house this Wednesday, September 23rd at 9am PDT on the Architecture Islands grid. Here is the event’s...

Sims at a fraction of the cost? No prim size limits? Saving and restoring entire sims to and from my own hard drive? OpenSim is where its at, and its improving at a pretty impressive rate. With the likes of IBM, Intel, Microsoft and even Linden Lab itself making contributions toward strengthening OpenSim, it certainly seems to have a chance at making it to prime time if it hasn’t already. We’re now offering 6 sims at $150/month on the OpenSim Architecture Grid…

We are starting our fifth week of work here in Cairo. Construction proceeds in SL. We are rapidly running out of prims. The design is starting to be dictated by what looks best with the fewest prims – not an ideal situation. We anticipate a major presentation to our...